Facing up to the AI challenge

1. In Association with
Opinion
Facing up to the AI challenge
Debjani Ghosh | October 21, 2018
The task ahead is to re-skill
1.5-2 million people in the next three to four years, in at
least nine disruptive technologies
The WEF Future of Jobs Report, 2018, is the perfect backdrop for a
conversation on re-skilling. That, 75 million jobs will be displaced
by disruptive technology and 133 million new ones will emerge
concurrently means that huge opportunities are up for grabs, but
only for those prepared.

2. Companies realise the need for immediate action. Sixty-nine per
cent of Indian business leaders concur (re: Accenture) that
adopting intelligent technologies will be a critical differentiator;
while 84 per cent expect that AI-driven man-machine interface
will add substantial value and improve efficiency.
Fifty-nine per cent worry about talent insufficiency being a major
hindrance, and yet, only 29 per cent have earmarked investments
for training.
In the midst of stark empirical evidence, only 20 per cent of Indian
business leaders believe their workforce to be AI-ready.
Opportunities and challenges
The recent news about a very large IT company offering a massive
differential pay to entry-level engineers with new-age digital
skills, caught everyone’s attention. Spurred on by skills shortage,
this trend will be the new norm as companies scout for capability,
available in pockets. It is particularly conditioned for scenarios
where digital revenue of large companies is around 20 per cent
and the smaller ones — avowedly “born digital” — clock growth of
around 40 per cent. As the contagion catches on, the supply
mismatch will have to be addressed to remain competitive.
Unarguably, talent availability will sustain India’s position as an
IT superpower but can we run fast enough to meet the proverbial
advantage of demographic dividend?

3. Given the magnitude, our response will have to be mission mode-
like where the government and academia join hands with the
industry and discard the prevailing silos. The fear of job losses —
albeit understandable — will have to be de-fanged by new jobs
creation and preparing the workforce appropriately.
As it follows, Nasscom’s primary focus right now is to catalyse
industry-wide digital transformation. Nasscom’s FutureSkills
initiative
addresses the nine disruptive technologies such as AI, Analytics,
AR (augmented reality) and RPA (robotics process automation),
describes the 66 job roles in those technologies and offers learning
content on the 155 skills required for those job roles. Moreover, it
isn’t a case of an either/or situation, but really the combined
power of these technologies.
Autonomous vehicles combine AI, Big Data, IoT and cloud, and
human-like chatbots provide a superior online experience based
on the seamless combination of both AI and AR to augment
reality.
While a few Indian IT companies are progressing remarkably
towards meeting the amplified needs in a very short time, given
the scale, this challenge will require a multi-pronged approach
through a coalition of competitors.
Investment concerns
Curiously enough, while the discussion on emerging technologies
is oft-repeated, ironically, very few industry people actually
understand what it really means.

4. As an industry, we will need to re-skill 1.5-2 million people in the
next three to four years which will require substantial investment.
A worm’s eye view will also entail that this kind of investment
may be well beyond the scope of many companies. Thus, risk
mitigation will seek out viable alternatives such as democratised
learning, open-source, collaboration and co-creation.
Despite large companies having L&D departments, learning
strategies, resources, technologies et al, they aren’t cushioned
from the challenges altogether. They too are often unclear about
the specific kind of training that’s required, periodicity or even the
source of the content, yet remaining agile all along.
And the perennial conundrum of buy or build in-house, remains.
Smaller companies remain unsure about investing in training, and
understandably so. Poaching of talent, particularly of the niche
variety remains a veritable threat.
The pace of change makes constant learning an imperative. Peter
Drucker once famously said, “The only skill that is necessary is the
skill to learn”. As much as it resonates and yet we have to be
pragmatic: motivating people to learn is the most challenging task
in any organisation, particularly if it is online and self-paced.
In the current environment, the responsibility to stay relevant is
shouldered equally between employer and employee.
Nasscom has responded through FutureSkills. Learners, experts
and training providers are on an even keel to reap thousands of
hours of curated content. Also, one can delve deeper into the
“marketplace” to connect with the world’s leading training
providers and platform providers.

5. Published on October 21, 2018
Micro-learning content addressing an array of needs, ensures that
users aren’t overwhelmed. The AI-backed engine constantly
curates content.
For smaller companies, this is an inexpensive and elegant way to
get plugged into a continuous evolving eco-system. It marks a
clear shift from prescriptive learning modules to chunks of
learning that are relevant at a point in time.
The fear-mongering narrative of job losses needs cleansing and to
be replaced by a more realistic one of enhanced productivity,
where robots and humans complement one another.
The writer is President, Nasscom.
artificial intelligence
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